Within the field of computing, many scenarios relate to a natural resources located within and between the hydrosphere (water), geosphere/lithosphere (crust, mantle, and core), atmosphere (air), and biosphere (the living part of Earth), such as a body or quantity of water, a volume of soil or air, a food produced, a mineral deposit, a population of wildlife, or a nature preserve such as a park. Such natural resources may have naturally arisen within an environment (e.g., a naturally formed lake), may have been artificially created within an environment (e.g., naturally occurring plants existing within a manmade crop field or glasshouse/greenhouse), or may exist in a controlled facility (e.g., a naturally occurring body of water existing within a water supply system). Many computing techniques relate to automated systems configured to track, measure, and/or manage various parameters relating to such natural resources. For example, centralized and/or distributed systems may include sensors that detect quality indicators relating to a body of water, such as the volume of water, physical properties (e.g., temperature, pressure, state of matter, and flow rates and directions), chemical properties (e.g., purity, components such as minerals present in a spring, and contaminants such as pollutants), biological properties (e.g., wildlife present in a lake, or biological contaminants such as bacteria and microbes that are present in a drinking water supply system), and/or artificial properties (e.g., a unit cost associated with a natural resource that may be available for purchase).
With regard to such natural resources, properties of various management systems may also be tracked. For example, a water distribution system may comprise a complex set of processing components, and the layout, operating conditions, and functions of various components may be tracked as relating to the quality indicators of the treated water. Such systems may be centralized, distributed, and/or autonomous; e.g., various supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) industrial control systems may be utilized to manage and control the treatment, analysis, and distribution process applied to a volume of water delivered to users.